The news which greeted him when he checked into the team hotel in Bath on Monday took some digesting.

"I was gobsmacked," he said at being chosen on the strength of 20 minutes for England’s second-string, the Saxons, against Italy last weekend.

"I’d got the call that I was wanted for training but I thought I’d be back with the Saxons after a couple of days.

"Suddenly I’m there training alongside people I’d been watching on TV and picking up tips from them. I’m glad I was given the news early because it’s beginning to sink in and it will have sunk in by Saturday."

An amateur at Rosslyn Park, who then had to endure financial traumas at Orrell and Rotherham, Easter found the promised land at Quins only to be relegated at the end of his first season.

"You get to the stage where you think: 'What do I want to get out of life?' he said.